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music for the head

Last night I dreamt that I found a Porcupine Tree album in my CD collection that I hadn’t heard in years. I put it on and fell in love with it all over again. Why had I neglected this album for so long? Every song was a wave of nostalgia– well, the first few seconds of every song, who listens to a whole album in a dream?

The thing is… this CD doesn’t exist. It was complete fantasy. A product of my imagination. What’s really weird is that my mind made up not only the music but also the artwork and the liner notes too. And I was listening to it, man! Like, REALLY listening to it! I felt like I knew the whole thing. I had memories of nodding my head, in time with the melodies and singing the words.

There’s a certain melancholy in knowing I’ll never get to hear it again because, as I’ve said, these songs exist nowhere outside of my own mind. Trippy, right? If not a little sad.

I’m a great believer in Barrett’s theory on dreaming, that dreams are a way of problem solving in a slightly different state. I don’t know what problems I’m having that required my brain to conjure up an entire progressive rock album but, shit– I think it worked! Maybe my problem was not being able to think of a good blog post..?

It’s not very often that I dream of something worth remembering, although there was what I now like to refer to as the ‘wine epiphany dream’. I never used to like red wine but after a very vivid dream of a subtle yet fruity blend, that all changed. My sub-conscience found it necessary to awaken in me a fondness for red wine. I can’t see how this has benefited my life in any way but it is a good anecdote for dinner parties.